SCIENTISTS in Newcastle and America have collaborated on a unique study to help them unravel the complex brain mechanisms responsible for tinnitus.

For the first time, researchers have recorded directly from the brain of someone with the condition to find the brain networks linked to causing the debilitating problem in order to gain a better understanding of the issue.

Dr William Sedley, from Newcastle University’s Institute of Neuroscience, co-led the international research with Dr Phillip Gander, from Iowa University in America. Their research contrasted brain activity during periods when tinnitus was relatively stronger and weaker.

The research was only possible because the 50-year-old man they studied required invasive electrode monitoring for epilepsy. He also happened to have a typical pattern of tinnitus, including ringing in both ears, in association with hearing loss.

Findings of the research, published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology, shed new light on the mechanisms of tinnitus and it is hoped that this will eventually lead to better treatments for patients.

Dr Sedley, who works for the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “This is a big step forward in our understanding of tinnitus, as it is the first time we have been able to clearly associate the patient’s own subjective experience of tinnitus with direct and precise measurements of brain activity.

“Perhaps the most remarkable finding was that activity directly linked to tinnitus was very extensive, and spanned a large proportion of the part of the brain we measured from. In contrast, the brain responses to a sound we played that mimicked the tinnitus were localised to a tiny area.”